Beijing Zoo

Beijing Zoo is located at the north of Xizhimenwai Avenue, Xicheng District. You can get there on line 4 of the Subway at the Beijing Zoo stop (naturally). It is the largest zoo in China and one of the most famous zoos all over the world. 

   It cost me RMB40 to enter the zoo but I think it is very reasonable and well worth it as this includes the Panda House as well and also a boat ride, I think but I did not go on that as the dock for the boat ride was too crowded... besides, other zoos around the world, in Malaysia and Singapore (even more so) cost a lot more....

 Beijing Zoo was once upon a time an imperial demesne in the Ming Dynasty, and then a private garden of the royal family in the Qing Dynasty, later was turned into an agricultural experimental field in 1906, and finally made a zoo in 1955. 

Now Beijing Zoo covers an area of about 50 hectares, more than 6,000 animals of over 500 species are on show. 

It definitely is a long long way to walk but well worth the walk.. Personally in my opinion, I have been to various Zoos around the world, San Diego Zoo, London Zoo, Dublin Zoo, Belfast Zoo, Rotterdam Zoo, Perth Zoo, Zoo Negara and Singapore Zoo to name a few..... and well.. for me, all this while Singapore Zoo has always been my most favourite Zoo... and maybe San Diego is lovely but I must say Beijing Zoo has planted it's presence in my heart as my second most favourite Zoo...I love the layout of the Beijing Zoo, I loved the enclosures that enable you to see the animals clearly and most of all the scenic walks and lakes... which are just so picturesque and gorgeous...

Just as you enter the zoo, you are welcomed by 'origami' animals at a small garden, the centre piece of the zoo 

Upon entering the zoo, you meet the 'guardians' or those mythical animals ... qilin or lions or something like that... that stand guard over most royal entrances...

My eldest daughter has always been a fan of Pandas and she has not yet gotten the chance to see the Pandas at our local Zoo Negara, though I have with my younger girl...so it was where she wanted to go first... 

There were two Panda Houses here... One is the Asian Games Panda House which housed 3 pandas... and then there is the Olympic Games Panda House which housed another 3-4 pandas... 

Sadly, these pandas do not seem to live up to the names of their houses... unless they are competing in the sleeping or lazy games... LOL

See the Panda above... gosh.. if that did not remind me of my big fat lazy cat  Beebo at home who likes to sleep in that position......

You can however find a lot of Panda souvenirs from soft toys, t shirts, head gear, etc...etc...etc...

Head up to the first floor and you can also take a break at the Panda Coffee Kiosk there and have a panda latte or cappucino...

Here is mine.. it comes served with some Almond danish and two animal biscuits...this was a bit expensive as it was about RMB36 or so....

After taking a short break, our panda visit commenced....

Ahhhh..... I finally found a more active Panda..... and he's busy eating...

We watched him for a bit and he finally got up and bumbled his way over to the other side to get more choice bamboo for him to continue his meal...

Outside the Panda houses, there was a wall where visitors had been able to make their mark and leave there....

After the Panda House, we continued our visit to other enclosures and to see other animals... and I came across these amazing posters..... I just can'r resist sharing them as it is so meaningful... Read carefully at the bottom, and let us humans try to be a little like these animals!!!                                                                                                                                                                                                

 We came across this baboon sleeping like a baby  and of course, yours truly could not resist taking a picture....

I really love the lake with the rocks and weeping willows.... it is such a beautiful sight and my daughter and I took a lot of pictures there.... or rather, she also did get annoyed with me keeping on at asking her to take my pictures here...

At the lake, we were enchanted and I felt like a little overexcited kid when I got to see a mother duck with her brood of ducklings swimming...

Then we met the ugly duckling and his gorgeous mom taking a swim as well....

What a beautiful sight it was and I truly enjoyed taking their pictures... I only had my Nikon Coolpix S33 and so the pictures are just about acceptable.. sadly during this trip I did not bring my DSLR as the lens needed to be repaired and I have yet send it to be repaired and my other main camera, the Sony is also "unwell" and not functioning then...

We met this pretty cute Red Panda at his enclosure...

And the brown bear....errmmm... Grizzly Bear???

This is yet another Brown Bear..

And a black bear....

And while we are going on about colours... can you spot the sleeping white tiger here....

We also got to meet the fox... finally!! I think I never saw one yet....or of I did, I forgot about it...

This guy is the coyote... if I am not mistaken.. I might be mistaken, so if I am, please forgive me, afterall, the signages here were all in Mandarin and yours truly here is a useless  Chinese specimen...hahahha 

We walked a long distance to the other side of the zoo and went to the penguin house where we were charged another RMB10 to go in... and well... I really think it is not worth it... there are not that many penguins... Underwater World Langkawi or even the Zoo Negara has more penguins then here.... 

There is definitely just less then a dozen penguins here....

But neverthe less, enjoy my penguin pictures here!!!

After seeing the penguins, we saw the gorillas, the kangaroos and lots more...

A case of monkey see, monkey do..... hehehee 

Some picture opportunity sites where you can pose ....

Last but not least was the gorgeous giraffes whose spots look darker then their counterparts here in Malaysia ...

And some elephants.....

If you need an estimation of how long would it be to visit the zoo, I would say it will take about 4 hours if you want to take a slow leisure walk and visit all exhibits....it is really a big place and I did not even see all of it because of time constraint... 

For more info, you might like to visit the website: http://www.bjzoo.com/default.html